>> shepard: this is the fox report. tonight, anonymous no more. we now know the identity of the soldier accused of killing spree in afghanistan. and soon he will be back in the united states and on his way to prison. >> received almost every award you can get as a combat veteran. [gunfire] >> shepard: but he has also lived throughout horrors of war. >> there was an ied explosive. gravely injured. he was told he was not going to be deployed. >> shepard: now the soldier's attorney wants to set the record straight. >> i don't know where that rumor came from and we find it very offensive o. >> shepard: plus, the new ipad is here. [cheers] >> shepard: lots of people

really want one. >> i have been out here since monday. >> cold temperatures, high winds. there is a lot of interesting characters out there in the line. >> shepard: so, was it worth it? and the sky dive that required a space suit. >> how about that, baby? how about that? >> shepard: fearless felix is trying to go even higher and make history. first from fox this friday night, now we know his name. u.s. military forces tell fox news the soldier accused in a killing spree in afghanistan is staff sergeant robert bales. his lawyer says the suspect is on his way to fort leavenworth in kansas, now, where the military has its only maximum security prison. we are expecting him to arrive there tonight. the attorney tells us he has not talked to his client about the accusations he faces. he says he is waiting to talk to him in person. he doesn't trust the government phone lines.

the day before the massacre another soldier, quote, had his leg shot off right in front of my client. as we have reported here the suspect was on his fourth deployment after three tours in iraq and his civilian lawyer says the highly decorated staff sergeant did not want to go afghanistan. >> the family was counting on him not being redeployed. he and the family were told that his tours in the middle east were over and then literally overnight that changed. so, i think that it would be fair to say that he and the family were not happy that he was going back. >> shepard: but the lawyer says reports of trouble in the soldier's marriage are totally bogus. >> very strong marriage. there is a lot of love. a lot of respect. two children. i don't know where that rumor came from and we find it very offensive. >> shepard: the kids, three and four years old, he says. the attorney tells us the family is in a protective situation at the soldier's home base in washington state. jennifer griffin is on fox top

story. she is live tonight at the pentagon. tell us more about this soldier tonight. jennifer? >> well, we know his name. we broke that staff sergeant robert bales. this is a photo of him at forter win, california at a training center just about six months prior to his deployment. he deployed to afghanistan on december 3rd. in this photo he is seen at a training center that they use to simulate an afghan village. he is with his unit. the second battalion of the third striker brigade combat team. that's the unit he deployed with. again, this is a training center. he deployed on december 3rd. we also are learning that two other u.s. service members who were allegedly drinking with staff sergeant robert bales before he went on that alleged shooting spree, they have been interviewed by military investigators, shep. >> shepard: and you found an article of which he was the subject. i guess something about a massacre that happened during a battle. >> well, it's very

interesting. it's a write-up about a battle that he took place n iraq when he was serving in iraq in 2009. remember, he had three tours in iraq. in that it says lessons learned in iraq. the battle of zarko and also called the battle of najaf. like a match lit up. this is quoting staff sergeant robert bales. it looked like a toy with a candle lit. he was describing -- he was describing what the area looked like after lt. colonel berry huggins' third brigade second infantry division another striker battalion had gone through in this very severe battle with the iraqis. from that article, i would like to quote, it says: it ended up in such a one sided victory for u.s. and iraqi forces that anti-coalition media attempted to frame as it a massacre until details came to light of the enemies plans. detailed preparations and arsenal of weapons and equipment. now, what's interesting, shepard is that the u.s. army

web site where this article was has since been expunged. it appears that the army and the defense department is expunging staff sergeant robert bales' name and any reference to him from the internet as we speak. we have been watching this happen all day. earlier in the day we heard from his defense lawyer who, again, appears to be mounting a defense of post-traumatic stress. >> they were totally shocked. he has never said anything antagonistic about muslims. he has never said anything antagonistic about middle eastern individuals. he, in general, has been very mild mannered. so they were very shocked by this. >> again, his lawyer presenting his family as shocked. he says there weren't any marital problems. again, we have heard otherwise from u.s. military sources, shepard? >> shepard: expunging his name from articles, exactly the reason we were questioning the

military about the delay in mentioning his name or at least perceived delay. jennifer, thanks very much. americans are seeing some of the biggest price hikes in almost a year now. the labor department reports the consumer price index jumped almost half a percent in february. that's the biggest increase in 10 months. economists say gas prices were the biggest reason for the jump as can you imagine. gas prices 3.83 a gallon up a penny since yesterday and highest ever, again, for this time of the year. analysts say the price hikes helped end the dow's seven day winning streak the longest in more than a year. nasdaq and dow lost. the s&p 500 managed to gain a half. north korea emerges with a doosie. announcing plans for a long-range rocket launch. of course, the secretive regime claims it only plans to try put a satellite into space. but just about everybody in the world is skeptical of that including the white house, which is arguing that it might

actually be a cover for a military test. now, remember, just a few weeks ago the white house agreed to send food to the knot koreans who have been suffering through famine. part of it was that the communist government would pull back its nuclear program. now, that agreement is very much in jeopardy, surprise, surprise. the south korea's foreign minister called the announcement, quote, a grave provocation. of course, cross border tensions there are always very high. and keep in mind this comes just a few months after the death of kim jong il in the rise of his son kim the younger. doug mckelway has this story live tonight in washington. doug, good evening. >> good evening, shep. north korea has been pulling this kind of maneuver for 20 years or more now. this is the first time that the son, kim jong u.n. has reversed course on the international stage. it took him a little more than two weeks to do. so it was on leap day, last february 29th that the secretary of state hillary clinton expressed cautious hope that this knew food for nuclear restraint deal that you described might be the start of a new

relationship with north korea. here she was. >> north korea has agreed to implement a moratorium on long-range missile launches. today's announcement represents a modest first step in the right direction. >> fast forward to today. and that hope is pretty well dashed. >> leap day agreement. we made clear unequivocally that we considered that any satellite launch would be a deal-breaker. >> many administration critics say this was a predictable maneuver by north korea and negotiating with the secretive regime should have been abandoned long ago. >> i think that the strategy the u.s. should be following, a difficult strategy to be sure but ultimately the only one that will solve the north korean nuclear weapons program is reunification of the peninsula. that requires heavy lifting with china over sustained period of time which we have not even begun to do.

>> bolton believes that china fears both a nuclear-powered north korea because of its destabilizing effect in the region and a collapsed north korea because it would result in a rush of korean refugees into china. a reason unification of the korean peninsula would solve both problems. the state department said today it will ask all members of the party of six talks including the lead party china to pressure north korea to reverse yet again its decision. shep? >> shepard: doug mckelway live in washington. doug, thanks very much. there is a new twist tonight in the birth control debate that has suddenly come to our nation. lawmakers in one state are proposing a law which would require women seeking birth control to prove its not related to preventing pregnancy. really? we will tell you where and why coming up. plus, a huge day for apple fans and tech geeks worldwide. the new ipad hits store shelves today and man were the lines long. so, was it worth the wait? from the journalists of fox

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>> shepard: justices have never decided to let cameras in the courtroom despite the health care case despite extraordinary public interest. instead the judge is going to post audio files and transcripts on its web site they tell us within two hours of the end of each day's proceedings. three days of arguments set to start the 26th of this month. more controversy over birth control. this time it's a proposed law in arizona that would force women to prove they're taking birth control for something other than controlling birth not kidding. the legislation states that any employer could deny birth control coverage on moral grounds, even if it's not a religious organization.

critics say that would violate workers' privacy if they had to reveal their medical conditions to employers. arizona's republic controlled legislature is expected to pass this bill into law. so that if you are taking birth control for the purpose of birth control, can't have it. today die hard apple fans crowded stores around the world to snag the new ipad. of course, you could have preordered it online but you would have missioned out on all the quote, fun, watch. [cheers] cheers and dancing people and store workers and greeting folks who waited for hours in new york city. look at them. some had been in line since monday. life, anyone? long lines in california, too. each apple's co-founder steve wozniacki knack was among those waiting. similar scenes at apple stores overseas. in hong kong people had to enter online lottery for a shot at the thing. third version of apple's

tablet has a faster processor and sharper screen. 500 to $900. game changer among tablets with more than 100 imitation tablets on the market. apple reports selling some 55 million ipads since the first one came out just two years ago. that's about 59% of the tablet market worldwide. tablet market didn't even have one of those two years ago. the fox business network lauren is with us now. it has been a ground-breaking product, lauren. some people say this new ipad is kind of short on the bells and whistles. >> that's what people say. the ipad 1 was a game changer as was the ipad 2 made a lot of improvements. ipad three aside from the screen and going a little bit faster is not much different. the lines were big it's just because people love apple. big story we are ignoring here the ipad 2 went down to $399. >> shepard: not enormous difference. i had this one. wall street went nuts for this

thing. >> completely nuts. if had you a choice of owning one share of apple $585, well that cost more than an apple ipad. it's crazy. back in 2010 you were mentioning that's when the first ipad came out $207, today 585. >> shepard: two years how much. >> 207 to 585. >> shepard: 170%? >> craziness. what did i do wrong? i don't know why i didn't buy apple back then. >> shepard: nice to see you. we have a verdict tonight in the case of the former college student accused of spying on gay roommate. that roommate jumped off the george washington bridge and killed himself when he found out about the spying of the roommate. the jury has spoken and we will have the jury's decision next. plus, george clooney in handcuffs. not a movie. why cops popped the a lister today. that's ahead as fox reports live tonight on al qaeda's least favorite network.

who knew?

>> shepard: a jury in new jersey today convicted rutgers university student on hate crime charges after he spied on gay roommate with a web cam. the same roommate who found about it and jumped off the george washington bridge to his death. now, the convict could spend 10 years in prison. you will recall in 201018-year-old tyler clementy jumped off that bridge after he learned the web cam broadcast in his dorm room encounter with another man. prosecutors claim the defendant set up the web cam, tweeted about what he had recorded and let other people watch. today the jury found him guilty on more than a dozen charges. the most serious bias intimidation based on sexual orientation, that is a hate

crime. today, the victim's father says he hopes young people can learn from this tragedy. >> to our college, high school, and even middle school youngsters i would say this, you are not necessarily going to -- you are going to meet a lot of people in your lifetime, son of these people you may not like. but just because you don't like them, does not mean you have to work against them. >> shepard: it's important to note the defendant was not charged with tyler clementy's death. david lee miller. good evening. >> good evening, shepard. in fact, both the prosecution and the defense here were prohibited by the judge from arguing about tyler clementy's motive for committing suicide. his death was on the minds of many in the courtroom. after the guilty verdict, saying nothing to reports. prosecutors told the jury he set up a web man to spy on sexual encounter. he tweeted and sent text about the video. destroyed evidence and lied about what he had done. his attorney argued his client was just an immature kid and

not anti-gay. he said the web cam was initially set up to provide security. the jury didn't buy it he listened with no visible emotion convicted of 15 counts send him to prison for 10 years and result in deportation to india. >> did commit the offense of invasion of privacy, knowing the conduct constituting invasion of privacy would cause tc to be intimidated because of sexual orientation, not guilty or guilty? >> guilty. >> ravi was released on bail and left the courtroom with his parents. clementy's mother and father who were also there later talked about their own anguish. >> the trial was painful for us as it would be for any parent who must sit and listen to people talk about bad and i object ainappropriate things that were done to their child. we were here every day because we wanted to be here for our son and because we believed the trial was important. >> there would not have been a trial if ravi would have said yes to a plea deal that would

have kept him out of prison in exchange for probation and community service. instead, he will now be sentenced may 21st. shepard? >> shepard: david lee miller live in new york city. george clooney arrested today. police in d.c. did the deed. clooney is a long-time activists for human rights in the activist nation of sudan. he, his father and several members of congress were protesting sudan's recent blockade of food and aid. authorities say they warned the demonstrators time and full-time again to stay behind the police line sudanese in washington. the demonstrators passed it anyway. george clooney released after several hours and the paying of $100 fine. >> trying to bring attention to an ongoing emergency, one that's got about a six-week timetable before the rainy season starts and a lot of people are going to die from it. so, our job right now is to try to bring attention to it. one of those ways was apparently getting arrested. i guess not aloud to hang out

at the sudanese embassy. >> shepard: good four clooney. worth the arrest and good to get a criminal record to raise awareness about things in sudan. george clooney will join bret baier filling in for chris wallace on "fox news sunday." bret will set down with presidential candidate mitt rom anymore. "fox news sunday" on local fox station. check your local listings. new pressure on the syrian regime which has been slaughtering its own people for a year now. there is word some people have defected from the army and are now taking in the fight. close to bashar assad's front door, even. details on that next. plus, the bin laden files u.s. officials tell us they are looking over documents which suggest why the terror mastermind developed a plan to kill president obama. and vice president biden may not be happy to hear about it. that's ahead. ity ira.

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but my nose is still runny. [ male announcer ] truth is, dayquil doesn't treat that. really? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your ruy nose. [ deep breath ] awesome. [ male announcer ] yes, it is. that's the cold truth! >> shepard: sorry, miami, you can have the nice weather and palm trees but you can't have peyton manning. sources close to the legendary nfl quarterback tell dolphins are out of the running to land the former indianapolis colts star. the fish had been on the short list. it appears the san francisco 49ers on the gun for hire. nothing in writing. the saga continues.

team executives flew to north carolina to watchmanning work out but not tonight squish the fish. answered petit is coming to back to the bronx. long-time pitcher retired before the start of last season but today the yankees announced they have signed into a minor league deal with an invitation to big league spring training. >> it's great to be here. i have absolutely loved it. the guys have all been awesome. appreciate the yankees. i had a little window here they told me whenever i wanted to come just to be here. >> shepard: yankees fans around the world rejoicing tonight. andy pettitte is a key figure in the perjury trial former teammate rogers clemens, he admitted he used performance-enhancing drugs helped lead to that document. the retrial scheduled to begin a month from today. march madness may be strange your company's it department. a survey by a tech staffing company called motis found 60% of office computer networks

have been under heavier than normal pressure under the past couple of days as employees stream live coverage of the ncaa basketball tournament. i'm shepard smith. this is the fox report. it's the bottom of the hour, time for the top of the news. [gunfire] >> shepard: defectors from the syrian army today took the fight to their former comrades near the heart of the syrian president bashar assad's brutal regime. according to activist groups there new battles broke out very close to syria's capital city of damascus while tens of thousands of protesters hit the streets to rise up against the growing slaughter in syria. meanwhile, turkey, syria's formerly friendly neighbor to the north, called for all of its people to get out of syria now. turkish officials also said they are considering setting up a security zone along the border with syria. and may soon withdrawal their

ambassador to damascus. of course, the united nations reports the syrian government has killed well over 8,000 people in the past year. the former u.n. secretary general kofi annan today said the world must respond but carefully to avoid making things worse. "the fox report's" chief correspondent jonathan hunt is with us. doesn't seem like likely that they're likely to get any dramatic results out of. this coffee if i annan told members of the security council today he has laid out cease-fire proposals to president assad and that he has also laid out proposals to allow humanitarian aid to get into those civilians who are suffering and have suffered so much over the past 12 months. mr. annan also apparently told the security counsel that the diplomatic path is the only safe path to pursue in this crisis. listen. >> we tend to focus on syria. but calculation that leads to

major escalation will have impact in the region, which will be extremely difficult to manage. >> a team from mr. annan's office is headed back to damascus this weekend for further talks. not many people would bet on them coming to anything, shep. >> shepard: any word out of syria on this annan mission? >> looking at what happened today in syria, the further violence it would appear would appear that they're ignoring those pleas for a seas fire from kofi annan they are ignoring pleas to allow humanitarian aid. in they say they are doing everything they can to find common ground. listen. >> i would like to assure you on behalf of my government that syria is committed to making mr. annan's mission successful. >> of course, successful by the definition of president assad's government would mean the opposition laying down their weapons, shep, and

effectively giving up. >> shepard: jonathan hunt live tonight. john, thank you. new details on usama bin laden's plot to murder the president of the united states. in the late terror leader's own words, united states officials now tell fox news the documents from inside bin laden's secret compound suggest he wanted al qaeda operatives to assassinate president obama and the now retired general david petraeus. usama bin laden reportedly wrote and i quote: obama is the head of infidelity and killing him automatically will make vice president biden take over the presidency. he goes on to read: biden is totally unprepared for that post, which will lead the united states into a crisis. as for petraeus, killing him would altar the war's path. those writings said to be among piles of documents and videos that navy seals found during last year's raid that killed usama bin laden. catherine herridge has some details for us from d.c. tonight. we haven't heard about these plots before or have we? >> well, we have, shepard, in

fact, they were reported last july. what's key here is the first time the reporter has seen the bin laden documents and the translations. as i mentioned the broad outlines to kill the president and general petraeus were reported last year. bin laden has an operative called kashmiry for those plots. the call for special cells in afghanistan and pakistan to take out planes carrying the president and petraeus. u.s. officials say the plots were not advanced and were never more than wishful thinking. the "the washington post" reporting today backs up earlier assessments that bin laden was deeply out of touch and some of the garbled language in those translations suggests he was often dictating to one of his wives at the compound, shep? >> shepard: what do you make of the timing here, bin laden has been dead since may. >> worth considering the timing. video showcases among other things the president's decision to take out usama bin laden. a decision that weighed heavily on the commander and chief. now "the washington post" columnist david ignatius says he was given exclusive look at the bin laden documents by a senior administration official

apparently within the white house. and also this week in the rose garden the president brought up the raid. >> there is a a reason why al qaeda is on its heels and has been disseminated. there is a reason by usama bin laden and his lieutenants are not in a position to be able to execute plots against the united states or great britain. >> a senior administration official told fox that the white house is very eager to declassify these documents and make them public in the coming months, of course, the key question is whether that timing is going to bump up against the election, shep. >> shepard: catherine herridge in washington. catherine, thank you. two more presidential contests this weekend that mitt romney and rick santorum are also looking ahead to a big showdown on president obama's home turf. and the president happened to be there today, too. we'll hear how he welcomed them to his neck of the woods. team fox coverage of the campaign trail just ahead as fox reports live tonight. [ male announcer ] the game of life with the prius c!

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>> shepard: just a few hours away from the next nominating contest in the presidential race. missouri holds caucuses tomorrow. they are mourning in missouri. bad basketball day. also held a primary last month in missouri. rick santorum won that it was meaningless, formality. state legislature required it and they didn't change the law in time. tomorrow's caucuses are not the last word. just a step in the process of choosing delegates. we will spare you all the details because it's quite boring. tonight, santorum is campaigning in illinois which holds its primary on tuesday. is he trailing mitt romney by seven points there according to the real clear politics average of the latest polls. today rick santorum explained why he is the better candidate to face the president in the fall. >> this election has to be about a choice. not between tweedle dum and tweedle dee.

>> shepard: guess who else was in illinois today raising a little money for his campaign. we will hear the president's message to his rivals in a moment. president's on the campaign trail. ed henry on the left hand side of the monitor. mike emanuel also in washington. mike, romney is in puerto rico tonight and he was asked about an issue that gave rick santorum a whole bunch of trouble. >> that's right. about whether english should be the primary language for puerto rico if puerto ricans want puerto rico to become a state. romney seemed ready for it and noted english has been an official language of puerto rico for 100 years but said both languages are important. >> spanish is the language of puerto rico's heritage. english is the language of opportunity. i would hope that young people would learn both languages but particularly english so that as they trade throughout the country and participate in educational opportunities and economic opportunities throughout the country.

>> perhaps a more diplomatic way of handling the lang issue although the santorum pro-incorporate grish comments may help him with conservative voters in other upcoming primaries, shep. >> shepard: new answer today from newt gingrich about whether he will be getting out of the race. >> well, gingrich continues campaigning in the south hoping louisiana will change his momentum. here is how he handled under what circumstances question today. >> probably none. i have 176,000 donors. everywhere i went yesterday said please stay in the race. please represent big ideas. please represent things like 2.50 a gam loan gas. >> gingrich certainly seems to be having a good time after doing some fundraising. he was seen petting an elephant at the auto bond otto bond zoo. the elephant can't vote. >> shepard: president kicked off own re-election campaign into gear with busy day of

fundraising across two states. the president made a couple stops in his hometown chicago. mitt romney in illinois earlier today as we just reported. santorum is there tonight. president took note. >> hello, chicago! you might have noticed that we have some guests in illinois this week. apparently things haven't quite wrapped up on the other side. >> shepard: apparently. big money fundraisers are this evening in atlanta. the tickets, they are cheap. one private event tonight at the home of actor and director tyler perry charging the maximum allowed by law 35,$800 per plate. team fox coverage continues. ed henry at the white house tonight. i'm guessing, ed, it will probably be something closer to domino's pizza for all of us. the president starting startinge on the republic candidates more directly. >> absolutely. he did not name those opponents. as you hinted at there. he was home in chicago and basically saying look, this is the land of lincoln and presented himself as the only candidate in this race who is

most like lincoln in terms of standing up for the little guy, having a big vision in his words and he trashed the republic candidates frankly for in his words getting lost in all these pay squabbles. take a listen. >> my message to all candidates is welcome to the land of lincoln. [ laughter ] because i'm thinking maybe some lincoln will rub off on them while they are here. >> now, of course, the president decrying negative campaigning just one day after he charged that republics who disagree with him on energy are members of the flat earth society. bottom line is both sides are stepping up the attacks right now, shep. >> shepard: today, five events for the president. he will raise the campaign the campaign tells us $5.5 million as republicans claim he has money problems. >> yeah, well, the republics are saying that because is he bringing a lot of money in. but he is spending even more. take a look at what they call the burn rate. this is the month of january what the president was bringing in and spending on staff, et cetera. he raised 11.9 million in

january but spent $17.7 million. that's a burn rate of 158%. you go back to george w. bush january of his re-election year, he raised 12.9 million, spent 7.6 million. so his burn rate was only 60%. know, in fairness to the president, if you look at mitt romney and what he did in january, his burn rate was 289%. so he is spending money like crazy. but, of course, he has a contested primary. the president does not, shep. >> shepard: ed henry at the white house. thanks. tear gas, rubber bullets and water canons part of a violent protest. tops our news around the world in 80 seconds. chile. activists taking their battle for social reforms to the street in a southern port city. they are calling for better health care and lower fuel costs among other things. one government leader called the demand unrealistic.

belgium. a national day of mourning start with a moment of silence for nearly 30 victims of yesterday's bus crash in switzerland. most of those victims children, 11 and 12 years old. the bus crashed inside a tunnel on the way back from a school ski trip. india. military forces and police arrested six people accused of growing a field of illegal opium poppies. its spanned two acres in a village in a eastern state. officials say satellite images and a tip led to the raid. we're told officers destroyed all of the poppy seeds, buds, and flowers. united arab emirates, a record-breaking book now on display in dubai. it's called this is mohammed and the guinness book folks say it's the largest book in the world. it's some 15 by 12 feet and weighs more than a ton. reportedly worth nearly

$3 million and that's a wrap on this fox trip around the world in 80 seconds. >> arnold the world is sponsored by verizon fglte america's most reliable network. >> shepard: that guy talks fast, doesn't he? free falling from the edge of outerspace. think of it. one man's quest to break the sound barrier with nothing but his body. you're falling out from what height? shut up. with 4 gigabytes, you could send and receive over 400,000 emails. or stream over 1,100 songs. or use gps navigation for 34 continuous days. all the data you need to power your favorite apps. 4 gigabytes for $30. only on america's largest 4g lte network. now buy one samsung stratosphere for $99.99, get another one free. verizon.

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>> shepard: here's a stunner. the man behind the campaign to stop coney is in a mental facility after cops tell the "l.a. times" he was masturbating in public and vandalizing cars.

you will recall last week the nonprofit invisible children released the video. coney is wanted by the international criminal court crimes against murder, child slave. the wants to make him famous to pressure politicians to stop kony's. cops in san diego tooks film maker jason russell to a hospital for observation. they say they had gotten reports that he was making sexual gestures in his underwear. police added that he may have been under the influence of something or other. his organization released the following statement. jason russell was unfortunately hospitalized yesterday suffering from exhaustion, dehydration and malnutrition. he is now receiving medical care and is focused on getting better. a dare devil is one fell to

earth from 14 miles up. 14 miles. he jumped from a balloon over new mexico complete with a pressurized suit and parachute. it seems as he fell faster than 360 miles per hour. and this was just a test. a test jump. he won't try the record-setting dive until summer at the earliest. jumping, he says, from the edge of outerspace. to give you an idea how high we mean. the world's tallest peek mount every rest is some 29,000 feet high. the cruising altitude of most crucial jet liners is around 35,000 feet. this guy plans to jump from 120,000 feet. 23 miles up. this is not to scale. trace gallagher with the news. is he live in our west coast newsroom. i'm -- i don't understand this sort of thing, trace. it gives me the he bejeanies. >> he is hoping to break the

speed of sound. they say in 40 seconds he will be flying 690 miles per hour and at that altitude that is the speed of sound. but there is also a tendency for him to spin wildly out of control and that could be fatal. but if he is steady, he will free fall for five minutes and 30 seconds before pulling his chuted. during the test run his free fall was 3.5 minutes and he he says that felt like a very long time. listen. >> free fall took forever. i mean i have never been in free fall for so long. i think i have pull and you look at like hell no i still have a couple minutes. six minutes. >> 120,000 feet is 75 below zero. the dive record by the way 106,000 feet set back in the 1960's by a guy named joe kiddinger who was 80 years old. he is in the team right now that's trying to break the sky dive record, shep. >> shepard: he could start

spiraling out of control and crash to the ground at 600 miles per hour? >> he could. 690 miles per hour which that flight by the way is the speed of sound. it varies with the thinness of oxygen. we have to tell you how he gets up in the air. this balloon is amazing. hooked to a space capsule that's 8 feet in diameter. the balloon you see there, 156 feet high and 100 feet wide and it lifts that capsule up very quickly. once felix jumps out and explosive device detaches the balloon from the capsule and the capsule floats back to earth using a parachute and so far felix bumgardner says it's been flawless, listen. >> when that balloon took off i was, i think it works, you know. i could feel it because everything was smooth and when that car was driving towards the balloon, when it was right underneath i could feel the release and i knew it's going up. there is just no other way. >> so the world record jump should happen sometime late summer. but another test jump at

90,000 feet will likely happen sometime in june in new mexico, shep. >> shepard: 90,000 feet. wow. trace gallagher in l.a. have a great weekend, pal, thank you. miles of destruction and not one serious injury in these tornadoes that hit southeastern michigan. not one. national weather service reports the tornado that hit the small town of dexter packed winds of 135 miles per hour. a story breaking on fox report last night. the twister damaged more than 100 homes. some families lost everything. the first officer on the seen reported he saw a hand sticking out of the debris. he pulled out an elderly man attached to that. shaken but in good shape. one witness grabbed a camera. look at this. told that twister stayed on the ground for about 30 minutes, leaving damage that stretches for 10 miles. according to the experts, americans spend almost as much on saint patrick's day as they do on halloween. it's not all shamrock shakes

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>> shepard: the rivers and beer run green. can a badge. drinking. saint patrick's day. chicago river. dates to 1962. here in new york, an estimated 3 million people are expected to turn out for the parade down fifth avenue. before we go, our team's top five things of the day. number five new study claims that fruit flies tend to handle rejection with alcohol. supreme court rejected a request to air live tv coverage over the health care overhaul. number three, a jury found a former college student guilty of hate crimes for spying on his gay roommate. number two, government officials warn they might cut aid to north korea if it goes ahead with a planned rocket launch. number one we now know the name of the soldier accused of

killing innocent afghan civilians. identified him abc staff sergeant robert bales. that's "the fox report's" top five. on this day in 1968, classic sitting at the top of the bay three months after the death of man who sang it ottis redding. influential singers of the 1960's. after 1967 monterrey pop fest he took a vacation on a house boat. those lazy days said to have inspired the song. just a few days after he recorded it, ottis redding died in a plane crash in wisconsin. the song would go on to become the posthumously released song in history. sitting on the dock of the bay watching the tide roll away 44 years ago today. ♪ sit at at the dock of the bay. >> shepard: now you know the news for this friday, march 16th, 2012. i'm shepard smith. from the journalists of fox news, thanks for hg